Adding Hotspots
Once you have finished capturing your footage, you'll need to open your photographs and mark where your walkways and assets are.
You can do this with an inexpensive tool named Pano2VR from Garden Gnome Software. You can download a free version from https://ggnome.com/pano2vr. Note that the free version will water-mark your images - the paid version will not.
Note that you can see this in action in our screencast on YouTube, below…
The steps are as follows….
Select your Image
Choose one of your source images.
The 'Auto' option in 'type' is normally an excellent choice, asking the product to determine exactly how you project your photo into 360 degrees. If for some reason Auto fails to work correctly, you'll need to manually select your type. Common options are below…
| Type | Source |
|---|---|
| Cylindrical | Panoramic photos without sky or floor, such as those from Cardboard Camera |
| Equirectangular | Photos from dedicated 3D cameras, such as the GoPro Fusion |
Convert the Image
First, try moving around your 360 photo by clicking and dragging on the photograph.
If you find yourself unable to look up and down, you've likely used a panoramic image, such as those created by Google Cardboard. This is fine, but you will need to convert it into a format that ARDI-360 can read.
If your image now seems distorted, you'll need to convert your footage to Equirectangular format, as this is what ARDI requires. Follow the instructions below. Otherwise, continue to Mark Hotspots, below.
Switch your type to 'Auto', choose Convert Input and from the drop-down lists ensure you select the program will create an equirectangular image in JPEG format from your original photograph. Make sure you note down where you save the new image to, and save it as 360.jpg
Mark Hotspots
From the toolbox (which appears when your mouse hovers over the top-corner of your 360 photo), choose the 'Polygon Hotspot Tool', pictured at the top. It looks like a target with a set of connected points around the outside.
Find an asset in your photo, then double click on the outside edge.
Continue moving the mouse to create a simple outline of your asset, clicking whenever you need to make a new corner.
Once you have completed your outline, double-click on a point you have already created to close the shape and finish editing.
Assign IDs to Hotspots
Next, click on the hotspot you've created. On the left, you'll see the option to assign an ID to this hotspot.
Add the name (or better, the ERN) of the asset you just highlighted.
If this is a walkway to another photograph, you should use the photograph names you decided on earlier.
Save Your P2VR File
You can now save your P2VR file.
We suggest you create a folder for every 360 photograph and in that folder place the image (named 360.png) and your P2VR file.
The next step is Creating 360 Assets